I’ve been remiss about updating you on the flurry of American Idol news lately, mainly from not caring. Oh, I’ll still watch Idol—though I may skip the audition rounds—but I’m not certain any of the twiddling is going to change the core show much, or change the fact that it’s not the new thing anymore and is likely to keep shedding …

There’s something perfect about throwing a shoe, isn’t there? The message behind the Iraqi journalist’s pedi-missile launched at George W. Bush was culturally specific; striking someone with a shoe is a sign that the object is like the dirt under one’s feet. (The media coverage of the fall of Baghdad made much, at the time, of Iraqis …

Ever wonder what Tuesdays with Morrie would have been like with full frontal nudity and swearing? We may never know, but it will be interesting to see see what else comes of the production deal announced yesterday between HBO and Oprah Winfrey’s production company, Harpo.

In one sense, it’s an unlikely match. Particularly in TV, Harpo …

Momma’s Boys, the NBC dating-show-with-a-twist from Ryan Seacrest, has a bold statement to make about prejudice in our supposedly postracial, melting-pot society: it’s still a great way to get a lot of attention for an otherwise dull reality show.

The premise of the show—basically an MTV dating premise adapted to a …

The Detroit News and Free Press made official today that they’re dramatically cutting back their emphasis on the paper part of newspaper, cutting out home delivery of the paper four days a week and shifting resources to online. Not Tuned In’s usual area of coverage but these are my hometown (well, home metro-area) papers, and just like …

Problem one: Your network has the Super Bowl in a year in which the economy is whimpering in the fetal position, and it’s getting hard to sell ads. Problem two: nobody is watching your primetime lineup. Double disaster? Or two great tastes that taste great together?

NBC is hoping for the latter, intending, according to Advertising Age …

I watched last night’s Heroes finale, but honestly I’ve been off the Heroes train too long this season to properly critique it, so consider this an open thread.

I did have one very tangential, picayune comment on the final moments, which kicked off the series’ fourth volume, “Fugitives,” for the second half of the season. (I …

… did any Tuned Inlanders catch the last installment of HBO’s House of Saddam? Judging from the underwhelming response my review got, I’m guessing not. But maybe it was just the review. As I wrote then, I admired but was not especially captivated by the miniseries, partly because it simply dramatized a lot of events already familiar …

You want to talk about lack of objectivity? This Iraqi journalist will show you what a lack of objectivity looks like: 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM3Z_Kskl_U]

Points off for accuracy, though. I guaran-damn-tee you Helen Thomas would not have missed.